


Day 3: Not a Person Standing in the Hall

by whatsanapocalae



Series: Inktober 2018 [2]
Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, Inktober, M/M, Spoilers, for a future fic but still
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-24 23:45:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16185668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatsanapocalae/pseuds/whatsanapocalae
Summary: A preview of the sequel to A Doctor in Union, in which Stefano and Sebastian find a monster that Sebastian was certain he'd bested in Union.Whenever I skip a day in Inktober, it's just that I wrote an original piece that day instead of fic. You can read the original ones on whatsanwritepocalae.tumblr.com





	Day 3: Not a Person Standing in the Hall

They had hidden in the house, both from the thing in the sky, the dark cloud made of eyes and weaving fingers and the things that looked like they were made out of corroded cast iron, shuffling on their poorly formed limbs. Stefano was impressed by them, kept going to the windows, peering out at them, taking mental notes. Sebastian knew why he had come along, as he slid onto a couch he watched him, but it felt like he’d come to practice his art. It felt like he was losing Stefano, just a bit, losing him to the artist that he had first met, even though that Stefano was a creation of Theodore’s instead of his own imagination. 

Sebastian’s hand came away from his arm bloody, sticky, and when he groaned Stefano turned towards him, an eyebrow raised. For a moment, Sebastian didn’t like that gaze directed at him. He didn’t want Stefano to look at him like he was the canvas for some magnificent piece. When he raised his eyes though, Stefano was regarding him with something close to concern instead, as if the blood wasn’t inspiration but the wound was something to truly worry about. 

Perhaps he’d just been imagining it. Perhaps Stefano wasn’t turning back to how he used to be, that the time they’d spent together had made him better than Union had made him. 

“Just a moment, my dear,” he offered a small smile that Sebastian was slow to return, “there must be something to ease your torment in this place.” 

He left the window to explore the house, leaving Sebastian behind. If there had been something in the house, they would have heard it by now, would have had to slay it or run from it. Most of the houses had been safe, so far. Emily had decided that houses were safe and there wasn’t much that could break her trust in that. 

Sebastian sighed, trying not to think, trying to just rest and relax, as he heard Stefano dig through the kitchen, the vacuum break in the refrigerator and reseal, the silverware clinking. Stefano was humming. The sound was nice and Sebastian closed his eyes, just letting the tune wash over him. It wasn’t something that he knew but it sounded simple and serene. It didn’t fit in this place. 

Stefano returned, pressing a soft kiss to Sebastian’s grimy forehead, not pausing in his humming, though he did pause in his steps long enough to drop a box of ammunition he’d found on the table. He wiped his lips from Sebastian’s sweat and whatever blood had gotten on him with the back of a gloved hand and continued into the house. 

Sebastian kept his eyes closed, though he didn’t sleep. It was the kind of humming that Stefano did while he was working around the house, their house, while he was cleaning or repairing something or cooking. Lily asked him what the songs were, every once in a while, and while Stefano didn’t have the best singing voice in the world, he would sing for her. She would laugh in her seat as his deep voice broke over the Italian and he would kiss her scalp instead of translating the world, claiming that the songs wouldn’t mean anything in English. 

He wanted to go home. 

He opened his eyes the moment the humming stopped. It was abrupt and nothing abrupt was good in this place. Ignoring the ache in his joints, the cold sweat trapped in his shirt, and the pain that flared in his arm when he moved it too much, he dragged himself to his feet. The humming hadn’t resumed, nor had Stefano called out to him or made any other sound. 

Sebastian pulled one of his guns from its holsters. He paced towards the hall, where Stefano should have been. When he got to the perpendicular wall he put his back against it, tiptoeing closer, peering around the corner. 

The light was swinging in the hall, casting odd light, but there was no mistaking that brown vest. He caught sight of Stefano, peeking from another doorway, and put a finger to his lips. Stefano looked from what was in the hall to Sebastian, the confusion evident in the line of his mouth, the way his attention darted. 

The thing in the hall hadn’t noticed them yet, standing facing one of the walls, stretching its neck, pulling out a gun and holding it to light, checking that it wasn’t empty. Sebastian would have referred to it as a him, but this thing wasn’t a person, even though it looked like one. He’d shot this thing already, point blank, as it lay on a hospital bed in Beacon. It shouldn’t have been here. 

Seeing that the revolver was full, it put the gun back in its holster, bent down as if to sneak through the hall, and turned towards Sebastian. He pulled away, swallowing hard, holding his breath. He had seen its face, even before he was out of view. He was certain it hadn’t seen him, at least. 

There was no way that he could deny it though, what it was. Even in this place, where there weren’t any people to corrupt, corruption still found its way. Humanoid things still wandered. 

There were pock-marks, blisters and thick veins on its face, heavy around the eyes. There was hardly any flesh that wasn’t pulsing and alive there, so much of it damaged and destroyed. It was, without a doubt, haunted. 

The only thing that looked different between now and Beacon was the fact that it’s eyes were glowing a bright blue. 

A shrieking, piercing sound erupted by Sebastian’s ear, a sound he’d heard too many times, in his dreams instead of the real world at least. He threw his hand to his ear, gritting his teeth and wincing as he agitated the gash in his arm. The sound was bad, the walls drawing close, his feet surrounded by blood, but it wasn’t as bad for him as it was for the thing in the hall. 

It screamed a harsh note and started running, past Sebastian, into the rest of the house, as it stretched with a deeper melody, a thrum as it turned into stark white hospital walls to accommodate the haunted’s sprint. It ran into the asylum until Sebastian couldn’t see it anymore.

The floor was buried under inches of blood. It was pooling up, soaking into his pant legs. Stefano wandered through it, his knife at his side, held for throwing. He didn’t want to get close to that thing either. 

“Is there a reason he looked like you?” Stefano asked. Sebastian couldn’t ignore that he heard a tremor in his voice.


End file.
